colonyflow Level 143

Overview

Level 143 is a Regular four-color stage whose picture is a framed pixel-art animal portrait — a sitting dog rendered in brown and orange, set against a large gray backdrop with a cyan and blue border and small red accent tiles. The tiles are stacked in layers, so the clearing order follows the picture from the outside in: the gray backdrop leaves first, then cyan and blue are exposed and cleared in the middle, and the red accent detail finishes last. With gray taking more than half the board, the whole level is paced around carrying that one large color while keeping the five-slot queue flexible enough for the small accents.

• Difficulty: Regular (Normal)
• Estimated moves: 35–45 taps

Step-by-Step Solution

1. Tap gray first. Gray covers the largest share of the picture, and the ants cannot reach the framed detail beneath until this big backdrop layer is gone. Keep tapping gray patches and use the 2x speed-up button to shorten the long first stretch.
2. Move to cyan next. Cyan forms the outer border of the framed portrait, which was partly covered by gray; once gray drops, the cyan border becomes reachable. Clear it in a continuous sweep.
3. Now tap blue. Blue is the inner border layer, exposed after cyan; keep the ants on blue until the whole blue region is carried away before starting the next color.
4. Tap red next. Red is the small accent detail on the dog, sitting on the lower layers; it clears quickly, and doing it after the big colors exposes the remaining inner detail.
5. Sweep the trace colors (orange, brown, purple, pink, yellow) whenever they become visible. These tiny tiles clear in one tap and must not linger, or they will block a slot at the end of the level.
6. Finish the level with whatever small tiles remain. With only accents left, the queue can safely be filled to speed up the finish.
7. A tile marked with a "?" hides its count until tapped — open it only when a queue slot is free, so an unknown color never jams the line. If the queue does jam, use the Magnet tool to pull the offending color, or the Lightning tool to clear a small cluster, and keep the Eraser for a single stuck tile.

Strategy & Reasoning

The level follows the layered-stacking rule: a color that covers others must be carried away first, and the removal order measured in the solution video is gray, cyan, blue, red, which matches the geometry of the framed portrait. Clearing gray before the border colors matters because gray is the thick backdrop layer; tapping cyan or blue early would waste ants on tiles still covered. The queue is the bottleneck, and with four main colors plus several trace colors the worst mistake is starting two medium colors at once and stalling. The efficient play is to pair the long gray carry with quick trace colors, so a free slot is always ready for the next exposed tile. Tools like Magnet and Lightning are rescue-only — using them preemptively is slower than finishing one color before starting the next. Because the gray stretch is the longest idle period, keep the speed-up button active throughout it.

Tips & Common Mistakes

• Tapping cyan or blue before gray is gone wastes ants on covered tiles. Clear the big gray backdrop first, then work the frame.
• Filling all five queue slots with one color leaves no room for the small trace tiles, which then stall the board. Push gray and use spare slots for the accents.
• Ignoring the "?" tiles until the queue is full leaves you with an unknown color that may not be removable. Open a "?" tile only when a slot is free.

Key Frames